No excuse, Sir!

Absolute accountability is a foreign concept for most people.  It is for me, but on purpose.  I assiduously avoid personal responsibility.  As anyone who has tried to call me on my shit will attest;  I'm a slippery and evasive so and so. Not only is it not MY fault it's probably something you did.  I have a black belt in emotional judo.  I am a Jedi master at rationalization.

That's not to say I don't understand the concept of absolute accountability.  I do.  I learned it in the Army. 

In the service there is an expression used when you fail to meet a goal; you are "wrong".  And there is only one thing to say when you are "Wrong"  and that is: "I have no excuse, Sir!"  There was no mitigation or litigation. No reasons why, no opportunity to explain.   If you failed you were "Wrong" and there is no excuse. And that was the end off it. 

Be here at 09:00 hrs.... at 09:01 you are "Wrong". Actually at 09:00 you were wrong because O.T.I.S. (on time is late).  And how do you respond when you are wrong? "I have no excuse, sir!

There is no excuse for my being so damn fat.  None.  I have lots of reasons, lots of well worn explanations, even a few carefully crafted medical arguments. Things like:

My family loves food and uses food to demonstrate love, so it's how I was raised.
I'm wired for carb addiction biochemically, so I was born this way. 
We live in a society where it's hard to get healthy
Healthy food costs more
I have physical problems that make exercise difficult.
BLAH BLAH BLAH....

These are the sad, weak excuses of an addict, of a drunk or a junkie explaining why they can't stop drinking or shooting dope.  Food is definitely my drug of choice and I am a fiend.

Every bit of food that went into my mouth got there by my own hand. I am 100% responsible for my current obesity.

I failed at the simple task of feeding myself in a way that was not life threatening. I AM WRONG! and I HAVE NO EXCUSE!

The good news is I am 100% responsible for getting fit as well. 

In the past I have failed to properly motivate myself.  I thought of this scene in Full Metal Jacket

I was a disgusting fat body, I was unfit to serve, but I am born again Hard.  I'm too old to serve as an infantryman in his beloved corps but at least I can not die of a pathetic, obesity related disease.  Good night Chesty, wherever you are!